Gold Guitar Winner, Brent Parlane is back in the saddle again. After being slowed down for a few years with medical problems, Brent is writing and singing better than ever.

"About eight years ago I was having a check up at the doctor's and asked him to see if there were any problems in the kidney area, as there was a family history of it." said Brent.

"After a few tests it was confirmed that I was in the early stages of renal failure - quite a shock. So, six years ago I started doing dialysis to keep myself alive. Dialysis means spending many hours a week with needles in your arms hooked up to a machine that cleans your blood. It was all very hard for me and my family and especially hard for my music career. I was on the waiting list for a transplant all that time.

The good news is that, on 24th June last year, I got a call from the hospital saying they might have a kidney for me and to come in immediately. At 6 o'clock that night I was operated on... and my new life had begun!

I was out of hospital in five days and although a little sore, was feeling better than I had in years. I never wanted to go public about my troubles when I was sick and I know some people wondered why my music career had gone so quiet. But now it's a good news story and I want to tell everybody.

While in hospital one of the staff told me that the organ donor's family had asked about my recovery - that was a powerful moment for me to face. I had always known that for my life to go on someone else had to die and some family would lose a loved one. I told the staff member that I was the happiest, luckiest man in the world and to tell the family that I would take special care of their wonderful gift. From now on I fully intend to try and convince everyone I meet to become an organ donor, because I now know what a fantastic difference it can make."

Based in Melbourne, Brent is having his first foray back to Sydney in many a year and is halfway through recording a new album of songs about life, love and all the rest.

"Brent is a great writer whose songs weave simplicity with a certain insightful irony." says Pat "He has a great sense of humour, which has been a great strength in these last few years, as well as a disarmingly honest approach to relationships and personal history. He has written some great 'social justice' songs as well. I do believe more people should hear his work. They won't be disappointed" says Drummond.

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